Results tagged ‘ Ken Levine ’

KABC just put out the announcement that Joe Block will be joining Josh Suchon as co-host of DodgerTalk for 2011. It’s a very exciting addition to the show, as Joe brings more than a decade of experience working in radio and TV, including several years as the Jacksonville Suns play-by-play guy back when Kemp, Billingsley, Kuo, Broxton, Loney, Elbert and others were coming up through that team (he missed Clayton by a season).

That’s when we first got to know him and his talent as an on-air personality. Most recently, he’s been hosting a similar show to DodgerTalk for the New Orleans Hornets while doubling as a minor league baseball play-by-play announcer during the summer. He’s got tremendous baseball knowledge and should be a great fit along with Soosh to keep DodgerTalk interesting while engaging in converations with all of you.

Of course, it’s a tad bittersweet because Ken Levine is no longer going to co-host the show. He’s done a tremendous job the last few seasons with Josh and was very fortunate to be named one of the play-by-play guys for the Mariners this season. We will miss his humor and passion for the Dodgers and I have no doubt he’ll still be around the stadium plenty and a part of the Dodger family, always.

If you’re a twitter follower, check out Joe at @joe_block and welcome him back to the Dodger family either there or in the comments of this blog.

Josh and Joe will be on the air from Camelback very soon, so check back for details on the first DodgerTalk of the spring on KABC 790.

Each year, one of the highlights of January is the Southern California Sports Broadcasters awards luncheon. The organization, which recently launched a website, has members that are a who’s who of media members and those in the So Cal world of sports. It was truly a room full of legends.

Lifetime achievement awards went to Bill Sharman and Louis Zamperini whose histories will blow your mind. If you don’t know about them, check out the links on each guy. It’s mind boggling. Al Michaels won the President’s Award and told a really funny story about being “groomed to replace Vin Scully” and 40-something years later, the odds are even that he’ll retire before Vinny.

Among the Dodger folks who won awards today were Vin, Fernando Valenzuela, Rick Monday, Eric Karros and the sports crew at KCAL/CBS.

Our sincere congrats go out to everyone involved in putting on this event and hopefully you’ll spend a little time looking through the site of this great organization.

Just came from a very cool luncheon which takes place each year and is hosted by the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association.

Vin Scully was receiving the President’s Award from the organization and Jim Hill was put into the Hall of Fame and both gave very moving speeches but the event turned into an impromptu lovefest for Vin that has rarely been equaled. It seemed that everyone who won an award talked at length about Vin’s role in their career and he was clearly humbled by the whole thing. He really is as classy as any individual I’ve ever been around and we are all very fortunate to have him be the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Other key Dodger people who won awards were Vin for best TV and radio play by play announcer, Jaime Jarrin for Spanish-language broadcaster, Ken Levine for talk show host (he gave props to Josh Suchon, his partner) and Eric Karros for pre or postgame host. We’re proud of all of them, and a personal shout out goes to Nancy Mazmanian, formerly of the Angels, who won the “High Five” award. And lots of love went out to the memory of Rory Markas, among others who we lost this year.

Meanwhile, at the same time that event was going on, we had the kickoff to the caravan at USC Hospital and tomorrow and Wednesday, we’ll be kicking around town and hope to see you all there.

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